BuzzFeed and the Death of Social Media News

A completely predictable disassembling of the media business.

Pretty good show last night. A little bit dark. You can watch the rewind here or listen to the podcast version here.

BuzzFeed, in the good days. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

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1. BuzzFeed News

Yesterday BuzzFeed announced that it was killing its News division. This is bad for readers, because BuzzFeed News was very good. But it’s also instructive. Because the story of BuzzFeed isn’t really about BuzzFeed. It’s not even really about journalism. It’s about aggregation, monopsony, and the power of platforms.

To explain it, we’re going to have to talk about Wal-Mart. And pickles.

So buckle up and take a journey with me.